If you’re a fan of giant creature movies, like the oversized ones depicted in It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955), Them (1954), 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), any Ray Harryhausen monster in Super Dynamation, this is the sci-fi movie for you. Technology has come a long way since stop-motion animation; we have CGI which, in this film, looks absolutely credible.
The inventiveness of creative minds makes unimaginable beasts look and feel real, as if ready for capture by anyone, including Frank ‘Bring ‘Em Back Alive’ Buck, his hunting, his, movies, his books, and exhibited in a circus or zoo for the gawking public.
In fact, since Disney took over the franchise, that’s pretty much what happens in Predator: Badlands. Frank Buck turns into none other than a Yautja, the Predator himself named Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Kolomatangi, a New Zealander of Tongan and Samoan heritage).
Director Trachtenberg gives Dek personality, language, and depth of character. Dek, the spine-breaking predator with spiderlike mandibles can be cheered, not just feared. An accomplished fighter, hunter, and killer, his ruthless warrior father Njohrr (Reuben de Jong) considers him the useless runt of his tribe, despite a height of 3 meters and energised with futuristic weaponry including invisibility.
Humans, as they age, often find hair turning grey. Just because humans grey, why must Predator Njohrr also grey? The white wig on father’s head looks more like a floppy cotton string mop grabbed off a Bunning’s shelf!
The Yautja are not human. Neither is anyone else in the picture. Most of the cast is covered in prosthetics or created by CGI.
Thia (Elle Fanning, well, half of her anyway) as well as her twin sister Tessa are programmed androids manufactured by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, introduced in the Alien franchise. Both are sent on a mission with other synthetic humanoids to Genna, the “death planet” and the Badlands of the movie’s title, to capture The Kalisk.
The Yautja despise sensitivity and lack any family ties. Father Njohrr orders Kwei (Michael Homik), his son, to kill his good-for-nothing brother Dek. To avoid the death sentence and demonstrate his capabilities Dek is ordered by his father to Genna to destroy The Kalisk, an invincible apex predator, and return with a trophy. Any Yaulje who’s gone before on this forbidden journey has never returned.
Setting foot onto Genna Dek’s courage is immediately challenged by imaginative beasts. Every living thing on Genna is out to maul or kill intruders: razor grass, hyacinth-structured plants which spit acid or sharp blades, snakelike vines ready to devour any moving life form. Dek finds Thia and reluctantly teams up with the knowledgeable half-bodied chatterbox. Dek renames her Tool as his guide to the fast-moving Kalisk.
There will be trouble between Dek and Thia since both seek the same dangerous prize, The Kalisk, which could define his legacy or end his bloodline.
Dek speaks in a language invented for the Yaulje by writers Patrick Aison, Jim Thomas and Dan Trachtenberg. If you avoid international films in languages other than English, prepare for plenty of subtitle reading. Thia, though speaking in Yaulje to Dek, saves subtitle use delivering dialogue in English.
Any movie chock full of scary sequences needs someplace where an audience can release tension with a laugh, else laughter comes in all the wrong places. Humour is provided by a creature Thia names Bud. It imitates Dek, marks Dek’s face with spit, and Bud proves to be a valuable life-saving buddy.
This is the kind of mainstream sci-fi action adventure spectacle that doesn’t show up enough today. It’s fun, inventive, visually attractive, and provides its audience with characters we can care about seeing survive. It’s one of the better sequels because strength isn’t brutality; it’s being a protector, someone who looks out for others.
Movie: Predator: Badlands
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Starring: Dimitrius Schuster-Kolomatangi, Elle Fanning, Reuben de Jong, Michael Homick
Duration: 107 mins
Rating: ***½
Reviewed by Lawrenty
